eCRM is Dead! Long live eCRM

Let’s begin with a few words about eCRM and the context in which it operates:

We are living in a world where the customer is connected, powerful and savvy. With over 5 billion phones in the world , 500 million users of Facebook and over  140 million Tweets a day , customers are connected as are the networks they use.

As marketers we want to engage this connected audience

But engaging suggests that we don’t just convey a message but that this message is enduring and captures the audience’s attention and imagination in a way that is relevant and personal to them

Connections include all touch-points with an organisation, that the audience has raised their hand to – from the pressing of a button on a remote control to the clicking of a mouse

So what is eCRM?

A few words from my A to Z of eCRM series, about these four letters...

E – is not just email. Too many marketers focus on just the email channel with their eCRM programmes, when actually it really is about every touch-point where the ‘customer’ has bought into some kind of engagement. Email is an important element, but let’s not forget how it can in used alongside other channels including social

C – is for Customer. But isn’t CRM wider than that? Aren’t we actually talking about Customers, Prospects, Influencers, and Employees? It’s more about the consumers of and contributors to the content we Marketers put out either to be pushed or pulled?

R – is for Relationship. Or does it stand for Really? Do we really have Relationships with our customers, or do we actually really have various degrees of connectedness with them that power up and down depending on what they want from us at that moment in time?

M – is for Management. But what do we think we are managing? The customer? The relationship? Think again. We struggle to manage ourselves!  Part of the new eCRM is about Consumers managing themselves and indeed managing us, the Brand

eCRM is much more about being Everywhere, understanding the Context, and being Relevant in a way that the connected consumer feels that they are in control and Managing the process.

eCRM in the right hands is very much alive and kicking (does anyone else remember Simple Minds ?)